MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION — Annual Report for 1991 



emergencies (e.g., oil spills), and provides that 

 contingency plans must be developed. 



At the end of 1991, the Department of State, in 

 consultation with the Commission and other interested 

 Federal agencies, was preparing to transmit the 

 Protocol to the Senate for advice and consent to 

 ratification.^ In 1992, the Commission expects to 

 work with the Department of State and others to 

 develop appropriate implementing legislation. 



XVIth Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting 



The XVIth regular Antarctic Treaty Consultative 

 Meeting was held in Bonn, Germany, on 7-18 October 

 1991 . The meeting was attended by representatives of 

 the 26 Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties noted 

 earlier. It also was attended by delegations from 

 Contracting Parties to the Antarctic Treaty that are not 

 Consultative Parties (Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, 

 Colombia, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Greece, 

 Guatemala, Hungary, the Democratic Peoples Repub- 

 lic of Korea, Papua New Guinea, Romania, and 

 Switzerland). Observers at the meeting included 

 representatives of the Commission for the Conserva- 

 tion of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, the 

 Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, the 

 Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs, 

 the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, the 

 Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, the 

 International Civil Aviation Organization, the Interna- 

 tional Maritime Organization, the World Meteorologi- 

 cal Organization, the International Union for the 

 Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, the 

 International Hydrographic Organization, the World 

 Tourism Organization, and the United Nations Envi- 

 ronment Program. 



The purposes of the regular Antarctic Treaty Con- 

 sultative meetings are to exchange information, hold 

 consultations, and consider and recommend to the 

 Consultative Party governments measures in further- 

 ance of the principles and objectives of the Antarctic 

 Treaty. The meeting endorsed the Antarctic Treaty 

 Protocol concluded in Madrid on October 4th, and 

 reviewed operation of other aspects of the Antarctic 

 Treaty system. It developed and recommended 

 adoption of an Annex on Area Protection and Man- 

 agement to the Antarctic Treaty Protocol on Environ- 



mental Protection (see above). The meeting also 

 reconmiended adoption of four new Sites of Special 

 Scientific Interest (SSSI), two new Specially Protected 

 Areas (SPA), and four new historic sites or monu- 

 ments. It approved and recommended adoption of 

 management plans for eight existing Specially Protect- 

 ed Areas. The meeting also endorsed and called upon 

 Parties to voluntarily comply with management plans 

 proposed by the United States for the area around the 

 U.S. Palmer Station on the southwest side of Anvers 

 Island, and a Specially Reserved Area on the north 

 side of the Dufek Massif. 



As noted in previous Commission Annual Reports, 

 the possible need to provide protection for additional 

 types of areas in Antarctica was considered at the 

 Xlllth and XlVth Antarctic Treaty Consultative 

 Meetings. At the XVth Consultative Meeting, the 

 Parties adopted, largely as a result of U.S. initiatives, 

 recommendations providing for: (1) the establishment 

 of Specially Reserved Areas (SRA) to protect areas 

 with outstanding physical or aesthetic features, and 

 (2) the establishment of Multiple-use Planning Areas 

 (MP A) to assist in planning and coordinating activities 

 to avoid mutual interference and minimize cumulative 

 environmental impacts in high-use areas. With regard 

 to the latter category, the Marine Mammal Commis- 

 sion, as noted in its Annual Report for calendar year 

 1988, organized and held a workshop in November 

 1988 to develop background information and a recom- 

 mended plan for managing activities in the vicinity of 

 the U.S. Palmer Station on the southwest side of 

 Anvers Island. 



The National Science Foundation used the report 

 from the Commission-sponsored workshop to develop 

 a proposal for designating the area around Palmer 

 Station as a Multiple-use Planning Area. The propos- 

 al was presented to, and considered by, the XVIth 

 Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. The recom- 

 mendation providing for the establishment of Multiple- 

 use Planning Areas is not yet in force and likely wUl 

 be superseded by provisions of the Antarctic Treaty 

 Protocol on Environmental Protection signed in 

 Madrid on 4 October 1991. The meeting noted that 

 it would be desirable to begin gadiering practical 

 experience in implementing such management plans 

 and, as indicated earlier, agreed that Parties should 



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